


Our Misfit Ways

by wonderluck



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: F/F, Friends to Lovers, Post-Canon, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-19 02:36:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29619300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderluck/pseuds/wonderluck
Summary: One thing about being on the team is that things are rarely boring.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Nile Freeman
Comments: 13
Kudos: 51
Collections: Black Is Beautiful 2021





	Our Misfit Ways

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flowersforgraves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowersforgraves/gifts).



Adjusting to life after Merrick is tough. Nile doesn’t get depressed, but she aches like there’s a little hollow spot in her chest blooming when she isn’t preoccupied with a job and tries to imagine more than a thousand years of life. 

But Nile is a problem-solver, an optimist. She can’t be with her family, but she can find workarounds and loopholes. She plans an anonymous grant for her brother to attend grad school, and she can be one of thousands of faces in a crowd at his graduation. If her mom gets sick when she is older, Nile will visit her in the hospital when she’s asleep—wait for shift change, kill the cameras—before disappearing like an apparition.

When Nile is feeling down, it’s like Joe and Nicky can sense it. Nicky pulls her into his latest video game or teaches her to sharpen a sword or reads her obscure poetry. Joe teaches her to set explosives or draw or coaxes her into the kitchen and each time he makes a guarantee: “Best meal you ever had, I promise!” He’s not wrong. Except that time he made meatloaf. A true disaster. He threatened to bury it in the yard so not even the garbage collector would know his shame.

Social media interaction and texting with friends is no longer an option. Nile’s social circle has shrunk to three ancient people and a 50-something spy. But Nile loves history, and she mines Andy, Joe, and Nicky for stories. 

She wants more Rodin stories, wants to know if Andy knew Bernini too, or any of the other Baroque masters. She wants the names of the female artists she knows were creating fantastic works but were erased by historians. Andy tells her what she can remember.

Nile throws herself into training, maybe has a few one-night stands. It’s not like anyone will question it. Okay, that’s not entirely accurate. Sometimes when she returns, Andy looks at her a little longer than usual, silent. Andy is protective, and they share a loft so they have safety in numbers. Maybe Andy doesn’t like not knowing where she is.

“Was she cute?” Nicky asks when Nile walks in one morning. He’s working through a piece of whatever bread he and Joe made. Nile snags a slice of her own and takes a bite.

“Yeah, she was pretty cute,” Nile says.

Andy has her feet up on the corner of the counter and watches her over the rim of her mug of tea—plain green or black or some stuff that smells like moist dirt and never sugar or milk like it’s medicine and not something cozy and Nile swears one day she’s going to spike it with bourbon. There’s no judgment, but her stare makes Nile feel both warm and smothered. It’s just one night. No phone numbers are exchanged and she doesn’t use her real name. She’s not putting the team in danger.

“We’re heading out tonight,” Andy says and puts her feet down, gets out of her chair. “St. Petersburg. Bring a coat.”

One thing about being on the team is that things are rarely boring. With Andy’s immortality gone, she’s taking as many jobs as they can handle before she’s gone. She never stops planning.

/

Another job, another continent. Andy gives them 48 hours warning this time, which is a full day more advance than they usually get.

“Got it, boss,” Nile says, trying the word in her mouth. She has only called her ‘Andy’ up until now.

“Don’t call me that.”

Nile’s brow furrows. “Why? Joe and Nicky call you that.” She pauses. “Booker called you that.”

“Just... don’t.” 

“Why?” 

Andy rolls her eyes. “Because I asked you not to.”

“Why am I special?” It feels less like exclusion and more like special privileges. Nile likes being special. Who doesn’t? But it doesn’t make sense.

“Jesus, you ask a lot of questions,” Andy says and she sounds tired. She reaches for Nile’s hand and runs her thumb across the pulse point on Nile’s wrist. Nile shivers.

“Just ‘Andy,’ okay?” She lets go.

_Oh._

“Okay. Andy,” Nile repeats.

Andy gives her a half smile and turns on her heel. Nile’s skin tingles. She waits until Andy is clear of the room before she turns to see Joe and Nicky in the kitchen, and she can tell they watched the whole thing go down and barely resisted the temptation to break out the popcorn.

“Uh oh, Nile,” Joe says and his voice is filled with mischief. 

Nile looks confused. “Was that... was that what I think it was? Or is that some kind of ancient gesture of friendship I don’t know about?”

“Nope, that’s what you think it was,” Joe says.

“You’re sure?” Nile asks.

“That’s as clear a sign as Andy will give you,” Nicky says.

“She couldn’t just ask a girl out on a date?” Nile asks.

Joe laughs. “Please take a moment to imagine Andy on a date.”

Nile imagines Andy in a restaurant with white table cloths and candlelight and she can’t even conjure up anything but a low key scowl on Andy’s face in the scenario. She’s halfway to a laugh and instead holds up her hands in surrender. “Okay. I get it.”

/

Nile’s phone chimes with a new text. “It’s Copley.”

Nile is training under Copley to fill what was previously Booker’s role. He has taught her about back channels, encryption, and coded radio communication. Up next is banking research. Follow the money. He won’t live forever, just like Andy, and all of it feels like intensive college courses, but she’s not complaining.

“Is he scheduling another call? I thought you just had one,” Andy says.

“No, no call. I told him I would help him understand social media with my generation,” Nile says. She looks at her phone. It’s a picture of shocked Pikachu and two questions: _Is it shouting? Or is it frightened?_ Nile cringes. “He’s trying to learn memes.”

Andy looks at her blankly. 

“I think it’s a lost cause.”

“Save your energy then,” Andy says. “Time to train.”

Half an hour in, Andy has already shown Nile fifteen battle tactics that she has never heard of.

“You know, you could write some of this stuff down,” Nile says, her head spinning with information.

Andy advances. “You’ll remember.”

Nile blocks another blow. “Yeah, but what if you forget to teach me something? You gonna come back as a ghost? Because honestly, I can see that.”

Andy rolls her eyes. “Ghosts aren’t real.”

Nile scoffs. “I’m immortal. Everything is on the table now: aliens-“

“Yes.”

Nile’s brows shoot up. “-ghosts-“

Andy shakes her head.

“Vampires?”

Andy tilts her head, thinking. “No. No werewolves either. Succubi, yes. They’ve got a real mean streak.”

Nile might need to sit down. “Okay,” she says slowly, drawing out the word. Her sense of the world can probably handle no more disruptions today, but she has to ask. “Atlantis?”

“That one’s real.”

“I need that story immediately,” Nile says.

Andy gives her a cocky grin and tosses her some escrima sticks. “Beat me and I’ll tell you.”

When Nile finally beats Andy, she gets Andy to the ground, one stick pressed across her throat, and Nile sees a mixture of pride and desire in Andy’s gaze. Desire for _her_. Nile doesn’t think about it, just closes the tiny gap between them and kisses her. Andy slips a hand behind Nile’s neck and holds her close, opens her thighs until Nile is slotted between her hips. 

“Did you want your story now?” Andy asks as her hand strokes the side of Nile’s neck and makes her shiver. Nile can’t tell if she’s serious.

“Tell me after,” Nile says, kissing Andy and pulling her shirt up and off. 

Andy nods and flips Nile onto her back. “You got it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title from “Crystal Days” by Echo & the Bunnymen


End file.
